


Heir

by UntramenTaro



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, There might be a coup d'etat, What if Ryoma was not the king?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 21:10:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10772490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UntramenTaro/pseuds/UntramenTaro
Summary: It was an absolute given that the crown would go to King Sumeragi's eldest son, Prince Ryoma. However, what sort of future is in store for Hoshido if this was not the case? The true ruler of Hoshido has always been someone else...





	Heir

Yukimura could always depend on two things: that the sun would rise tomorrow and that there was always work on his desk. His workload had only increased as he was currently the ruling regent of Hoshido until Ryoma could officially ascend to the throne.

During Queen Mikoto’s reign, he worked tirelessly to make the country run smoothly. As charismatic as Lady Mikoto was, she was clueless as to the machinations of a government such as trade and taxes. It was his duty to take care of such things, and he resolved many minor squabbles between townships before they would ever reach Queen Mikoto’s ears. In regard to diplomacy and war he was simply an advisor and she often sought out and followed his counsel.

However, with her passing, he no longer could pretend he was not responsible for the ultimate fate of the country; he soon took on more and more government duties until he felt he could hardly remember what life he had lead before. 

He had a few aides of his own in the castle now, as governing a country was not a task a single man could do himself. A few of them started to call him “Lord Yukimura” but the title of “Lord” made him feel uneasy. He never asked them the reason they called him such nor did he ask them to stop, as he assumed that it was simply because for now he was the unofficial ruler of Hoshido.

It had been numerous months since he took on this important role as ruling regent, and he did his best to keep a correspondence with the Prince Ryoma in regards to his status. However, the timing of the missives became infrequent, and Yukimura could only worry about how the future king was faring on the battlefield. 

One day, he received a letter from Prince Ryoma saying that Prince Takumi had sired a son named Kiragi. Yukimura smiled, thinking about Lord Sumeragi’s newborn grandson. “I hope I can meet him,” Yukimura hummed as he gently tucked the letter into the pouch on his waist. “I’ll inform Lord Sumeragi and Lady Mikoto of this.”

* * *

He informed his aides that he was going to visit the late monarch’s graves, though it had taken a few days of planning and coordination to be able to do so. He sighed. Was this how Lord Sumeragi and Lady Mikoto had to live their lives when they ruled? It was so tiring to not be given so much as a break.

When he had finally hiked to their graves, which was situated on a small tranquil hill a decent distance from the castle, he set out some incense and offerings. It was a simple affair: some fresh flowers and a bottle of sake that Azama absolutely would insist that Yukimura bring. “The dead can’t rest in peace without a good drink,” Azama would always say, and Yukimura was not one to question the words of a priest. 

He reached into his pouch and pulled out Ryoma’s letter, and showed it to the grave as if they were still able to see. “Lord Sumeragi, Lady Mikoto. I bring news of the birth of your grandson. Lord Takumi has a new son named Kiragi and I hope you will give him your blessings.”  
There was no reply as one would expect, and he gently folded the letter back into his pouch. He stood in silence for a time, the only sound being the rustling leaves from the slight breeze. It took some time before he could finally find words again. 

“Things are going well… It seems that everyone is in good spirits, but the castle is hectic as always.” He gave a small chuckle. “And I can surmise from the letters that Lord Ryoma has sent me that he and Lady Azura have been becoming closer lately. You may have some more grandchildren soon.”

A harsh wind blew by, and Yukimura raised his arms up to shield his eyes from the dust. “Ok, ok, I won’t joke about that!” The wind then died down.

He spent the rest of his time chatting away, talking about how everyone was and about the mountains of work that never seemed to dwindle. Though it was a one-sided conversation on his end, it still felt peaceful. He soon noticed that the incense had burned down to ash, and bowed to the grave. “I will take my leave now.”

When he returned to the castle, things seemed to be in utter chaos. His aides ran over to him speaking about how this province wished to have fortified defenses or how tariffs on such and such goods was detrimental to the economy. Though he had scarcely been gone for an hour or two, it seemed that they were unable to handle anything without his guidance. He let out a labored sigh. He had intended on building automations to defend the castle so he could perhaps assist Lord Corrin directly, but it seemed that the castle being under enemy siege was the least of his problems when he was constantly being sieged by bureaucracy.

* * *

It was finally time for Kiragi to be added to the family registry. During the first few months of life it was never a guarantee that the infant would survive, but Kiragi proved to be healthy and full of vitality according to the letters he had received. Yukimura was glad, as he had felt guilt at his delay adding the new prince to the registry and would’ve felt more guilty having to have added him to the registry with the words “deceased” under it. 

It was the right of the family head to update the family registry, but seeing as Lady Mikoto had passed and Lord Ryoma was at war, the duty was passed onto him the ruling regent on Ryoma’s behalf. This certainly was not a duty that Yukimura would anticipate performing, but nonetheless he would carry out his task.

The register was locked away in the treasury, and retrieving it was a relatively simple task. The registry was a long scroll that chronicled the long history of the Hoshido royal family, with many more sheets of paper being adhered to extend it when needed. Yukimura was careful to unfurl the pages, as he was not fond of the idea of being tried for treason if he so much as damaged it.

As he unrolled the page, he saw their names: Lord Sumeragi, Lord Ryoma, Lady Hinoka, Lord Takumi, Lady Sakura, Lady Mikoto, Lord Corrin, and Lord Yukimura. Wait. Lord Yukimura?

Yukimura took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Was he seeing things? This simply was a trick of his mind, as there was simply no way this could possibly be. He carefully wiped his glasses clean and perched them back on his nose, and peered back at the registry.

Unmistakably there was his name, scrawled under Lord Sumeragi’s as his “son.” He knew this was Lord Sumeragi’s handwriting, as with all the writing in the registry from his family onward. Lady Mikoto had not touched the register at all during her time as queen, and Yukimura doubted that the register would be tampered with. So why? How?

Closing his eyes, he placed the register down and rubbed his temples. He opened his eyes and gazed back at the register, blinking slowly, but his name continued to be there. Suddenly he felt light-headed and braced himself against the table. Why was his name there? What could this possibly mean? The writing was slightly faded, older than the writing for that of Lord Ryoma and his siblings. How long had his name been there?

It didn’t matter. It was not his job to figure out the mysterious circumstances of his name being in the registry. His job was to update the register, to write down Lord Takumi’s spouse and the new prince Kiragi. That was all. After that task was done he would roll up the register, place it away carefully where it belonged, and go home. That was all.

That simply was all that he needed to do, wasn’t it?

His mouth went dry, and he can feel his fingers tremble as he smoothed out the paper. His name was there. _His name was there._ Even when he took out the ink pen and wrote down the new additions to the register, his eyes would dart back over to his name.

Yukimura (son).

There was more to do to update the registry. He moved on, carefully wrote the words “deceased” under Sumeragi and Mikoto’s names. After he had finished, he glanced over to his name on the paper once more, hoping that perhaps this time it would not be there. 

But it was still there.

_Yukimura (son)._

He ran his hand over his name, covering it, taking a shaking breath. He pressed his hand down on the paper where his name was and closed his eyes. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. If he was under the registry as Sumeragi’s son then that would mean that he was the rightful heir to Hoshido. 

When he lifted his hand from the paper, his name was still there. Yukimura, the eldest son of the late King Sumeragi... and the crown prince of Hoshido.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on the idea for this AU for a while! I have to go through Fates again to make sure I can get the plot divergence to be consistent, but here it is!  
> This was particularly inspired by Yukimura's supports with M!Corrin, in which Yukimura stated that they both were Sumeragi's sons. I hope that I can continue to write this when I have the time to, because this teaser hardly touched upon the interesting plot repercussions that I had in mind.  
> I'd appreciate if you let your thoughts known in the comments, as it really helps me as a writer to become more inspired.


End file.
